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Everybody thinks about food on occasion. And all religious holidays and cultural holidays are surrounded by food, or by fasting and then surrounded by food. So food has a powerful role in our life for health, for illness, for our spiritual lives, for our emotional lives.

My mother was a great cook, and she cooked in German, and she cooked in Mexican, and she cooked in American. She didn't really cook in Asian, but because she had lived in those countries, she was a really good cook. And she passed down some of her recipes. But all important dates and "I love you" was said in food.

And she passed on this interest in food to her four children. We are all highly food motivated. When we get together, all we do is talk about food, food we're going to eat, food we did eat, the best food we ever ate. It was hard for people sitting at the dinner table who were not food motivated, and that would include my husband, whose family is not food motivated, and neither is he.

So those of us who eat to live, and that would be my husband, and those of us who live to eat, and that would be me, and to every family, food means something different. But as we're trying to grow our children and trying to feed our grandchildren, nutrition takes our focus from just any food that is yummy to something that's good for us.

Often, at least in our culture, women make the decisions surrounding food. They plan the menus. They have a kid who only eats white food, and then they've got a kid who won't eat that, and they have a kid who's allergic to this, and the husband who is a meat-itarian, and they might be snacking on the food they make for everyone. So by dinnertime, they are all full.

Kary Woodruff joins this epsiode and Kary is a registered dietician, a clinical dietitian, and that means not just talking about food, but clinically thinking about food, and assistant professor here at the University of Utah about food and nutrition.

Dr. Jones: Thinking about the health aspects or the physical aspects of the seven domains, there are people who have to eat certain things or have to not eat certain things, and those would be diabetics, or people with liver failure, or maybe some people with an odd genetic disease like phenylketonuria...

Kary: So there are individuals, for example, you identified PK. Someone who has a diagnosis of PKU, phenylketonuria, they need to avoid anything that has been phenylalanine in it.

Dr. Jones: That's a basic amino acid that all of us need supposedly. And it's in everything, isn't it?

Kary: Correct. Well, all protein foods. And so it's really a diet comprised of refined carbohydrates and really sugar-containing foods. And so they rely upon dietary supplements to make sure that they're able to meet their dietary needs for vitamins.

Dr. Jones: And people with liver failure aren't supposed to eat a lot of protein, right?

Kary: Yeah, depending upon their stage of liver failure. Absolutely. Or even with kidney disease, end-stage renal disease, they need to be cognizant of their protein intake, depending upon their stage of dialysis or form of dialysis as well.

What I find is clinically there are very few patients who, in a medical setting, really don't have some sort of dietary implication of their disease. So it could be more mild or moderate. It could be more extreme. But so many of our body systems are impacted by the foods that we eat and the nutrients that we consume. And so, to some degree or another, almost any medical condition may necessitate some sort of adjustment or tweaking with our diets.

When I have a dinner party or invite people over or having people stay, I now automatically, in my email, say, "Are there any food preferences?" because more and more people say, "I'm allergic to this, this, and this." But I didn't know that people could be so allergic to food. What are these food allergy things? And what's a food allergy versus food preference?

Kary: The body's immune system is responding to that specific antigen. And so, in that case, that person does need to eliminate the food from their diet because if not, that could result in maybe mild symptoms of itchy, rashy skin, or very severe symptoms of anaphylaxis, which can be life threatening.

Dr. Jones: So anaphylaxis is when their throat closes, and they can't take a deep breath, and they can't breathe. So they can have hives, or they can have difficulty breathing or feeling like their mouth is getting swollen. Those are scary things.

But then there are people who say, "Oh, no, I'm allergic to this, that, and the other." So I always ask as a clinician, "What happens when you eat that?"

Kary: A lot of times, there are perceived allergies. And by that, it could be an intolerance. So a very common example would be gluten intolerance. Now, there is a condition called celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disorder, whereby the consumption of gluten, which is a protein type in wheat, barley, and rye, causes damage to our gastrointestinal system.

But some individuals really do seem to be more sensitive to gluten. The challenge is some of the studies, if you actually do a placebo-controlled study, if someone thinks that they're consuming gluten, they may often report the same symptoms even if there actually was not gluten in the food.

Some degree of bloating is normal when we consume food, and some degree of just feeling of fullness is very normal. Fiber is contained in many healthful sources of wheat, and so some of that can just be normal digestion. But I think there's a little bit of media hype around bloating and distension that we've almost become... potentially, some individuals are a little hypersensitive to that.

My table food is love, because that was my upbringing. Food is love. I want them to be completely comfortable with what I offer. My goal is to honor everyone's dietary preferences, which can be an emotional choice. It can be a spiritual choice, meaning people who've made either a religion... their faith demands that they not eat meat, or they can't eat certain kinds of meat. I think of religions, and I think of Islam, and I think of Judaism where they can't or don't eat pork and shellfish.

There are some reasons some people have. Epidemiologists and anthropologists have said, "Well, here are the reasons that people don't eat pork and don't eat fish." But I want to make people comfortable at my table.

Dr. Jones: You work in the hospital. You have people who say, "I can't eat this because of my faith," or, "I'd prefer not to eat that"?

Kary: Yes, absolutely. And it absolutely depends upon the specific faith. So, for example, someone who is Jewish and they follow the Kashrut would dictate that they don't do animals that actually chew their cud, or that have, I think, split hooves is what the Bible says. So, in those instances, they would not eat cow products. And so pork would not be allowed.

And they would not eat shellfish because it doesn't have both fins and scales. So that's in accordance with the Kashrut, which is provided by the Bible in the Old Testament. And so those dietary practices are followed by members of the Jewish faith.

Now, someone, for example, who is Hindu, they're going to follow the do no harm principle. And so, for them, they may choose to be vegetarian or vegan, depending upon their personal preference and their interpretation of that principle. They may limit their intake of animal foods or omit them altogether. And that's out of the principle of doing no harm to other organisms, to other animals.

And so it does depend upon the specific faith as to what foods might be not allowed and why, but many different religions do have specific dietary principles.

The WHO came out and said, "If the planet ate less meat, we would have less carbon dioxide. It would be a healthier planet." So some of the choices we make actually affect our environment just in terms of the food choices that we make.

Kary: The production of meat, it results in greater carbon emissions. And then also the input, so the amount of water, for example, that's part of the food manufacturing system of producing meat is much greater than for plant sources of protein.

Dr. Jones: In terms of trees, I think of what's happening in Brazil. Do you have to burn down the rainforest so you can make places where cows can graze? Because they don't graze on the rainforest. It becomes difficult.

Can a vegan be happily married to a meat-itarian? How does that work out? There are obviously going to be some ethical implications of that as to why someone is following a vegan lifestyle, out of what principle. And if it's for how the animals are treated, there might be some ethical tensions there.

Michael Pollan says it best. He says, "Eat foods, mostly plants, not too much." And whether you consume some meat as part of that dietary approach, it can still fit into a plant-based diet. Plant-based diet is sort of a catchall phrase, but it's a diet that subsists of mostly plants. But sure, maybe some chicken or other environmentally sort of sustainable forms of protein are included in that, and yet still be a plant-based diet.

It's done with honor. As long as each honors the other's choices and supports them as best they can. It doesn't help when people don't honor someone else's choices.

So let's talk about Princess Kate and the Dukan diet. It's very popular in some circles—it's a periodic fasting. And that actually makes sense to me based on how we evolved to eat. We evolved, I think, not having a refrigerator full of yummies that we could eat on every couple of hours. We might have had things that we ate every couple of hours, but we had lots of time and we didn't have food.

Kary: Metabolically, there are some advantages to the intermittent fasting approach. Now, keep in mind, intermittent fasting is a catchall phrase. There are so many different ways to approach that. So it could be alternate day fasting. It could be limited hour fasting, so eating for 8 hours a day, fasting for 16 hours. So there are lots of different iterations of it.

But here's where my bias as an eating disorder dietitian comes in. So what happens, though, when we don't have food?

Dr. Jones: You mean other than I get hangry and I get pretty cranky?

Kary: Right. And then from an evolutionary standpoint, our bodies have evolved to prompt us to think about food. That sort of concept of deprivation can really result in the opposite end of the spectrum, of thinking about it all the time and seeking it out and can result in bingeing.

So, from sort of a medical and metabolic standpoint, it can work. And for some people, it's very sustainable. They don't experience any of these sort of increased thoughts and fixations on food. But for some individuals, they find that restriction of intermittent fasting can really exacerbate or worsen one's relationship with food and can prompt some unhealthy thoughts as well.

But more and more, we're learning diets don't work in terms of long-term studies of how effective they are. Now, short-term, three, six months, people may lose weight. Ninety percent to 95% of individuals gain the weight back. Sixty percent of those individuals will gain even more weight back. Long term, now. We're talking three, five, or more years out. So that's the challenge.

Eventually we're going to go off of a diet. And so, if what we're doing is something that is viewed to be temporary... even though there's sort of this wellness culture that now is putting everything as a lifestyle. But cutting out so many food groups like the ketogenic diet, for very few people, that's actually a lifestyle, and it really is more of a diet. Then when they go off of that approach, they then resume their previous dietary habits.

So what's the best diet? I really have come back to sort of my catchphrase... balance, moderation, and variety as an approach to food. I really like Michael Pollan's tagline of "Eat foods, mostly plants, not too much," and really just focusing on increasing the healthful components of our diet, decreasing some of the what I call foreign substances, foods that our bodies are not used to consuming, so the more processed foods.

It's not very sexy, it's not very exciting, but it really is how we can sustain a helpful relationship with food and try to sustain our health.

It's hard to do the right thing, but the good news is there are so many ways to do the right thing. There's no one perfect or right way.

• DO have both everyday foods and sometimes food in the house. Everyday foods are foods like fruits, and vegetables, and proteins, and dairy, and healthy fats. And sometimes foods will be the sweets, and treats, and snacks.

• DON'T moralize food. It's not that the apple is morally good and the chocolate cake is morally bad. The chocolate cake can be just as good for us sometimes as the apple is. And so it's just recognizing that we have our everyday foods and then we have our sometimes foods and try not to moralize it.

• DO eat a balance meal. Include a protein source, a whole grain source, and a fruit and/or a vegetable.

• DON'T be a short order cook. Cook one meal for the family. If someone doesn't like it, they can make themselves some neutral food, such as peanut butter toast

Dr. Jones: I think the fabulous thing about living in a multicultural society is how many fabulous flavors we have. But actually looking at the way the grandmothers of our multicultural societies cook, whether it's Indian, or whether it's Middle Eastern, or whether it's Mexican, or whether it's Asian or if it's Native American, you take a look at the way the grandmothers cook, that gives us a view of probably a healthier way to eat.

Kary: Absolutely. They are preparing foods that are minimally processed, lots of chopping and cutting up of vegetables as a good base, and whole grains, and really sticking to foods that have been around for thousands of years.

Dr. Jones: Well, that's my pitch for keeping grandmothers healthy.

Food is personal
You don't like stuffing or sprouts?
Hey, don't yuck my yum

Contact: hello@thescoperadio.com
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Announcer: Need reliable health and wellness information? Don't listen to the guy in the cube next to you, get it from a trusted source, straight from the doctor's mouth. Here's this week's listener question on The Scope.

Interviewer: Answering this week's Listener Question is Registered Dietician, Kary Woodruff. Kary the question, "Are fad diets safe and healthy for me to be on?"

Kary: It's a great question and it's really hard to say specifically one diet is, one diet isn't. But here my recommendation is, is the diet sustainable? So is this something that you could see yourself doing, you know, one to 10 years from now? Some things to kind of consider, or red flags I should say for less healthy fad diets would be diets that cut out entire food groups, right. So if a diet cuts out greens, and dairy, and legumes, right, that would . . .

Interviewer: Like the smoothie diet's probably not a thing that you should be trying then.

Kary: Right, correct. And or a diet that asks you to eat the same thing every day. Right, that's not very sustainable.

Interviewer: Nuts.

Kary: Yeah, we get bored of it, right? So that's not going to be very sustainable. Is there something that we can do in our day to day life that includes social functions, right? So if we're avoiding social functions because it doesn't accommodate our diet, then I would challenge that's not a very sustainable approach.

Interviewer: So pretty much the answer's no, right? There are no good, safe fad diets out there?

Kary: Typically not, it usually comes back to balance, moderation, and variety.

Announcer: Have a question? Ask it. Send your listener question to hello@thescoperadio.com.

Interviewer: It seems like having a healthy diet is always on the list of New Year's resolutions for a lot of us. It's probably because it was on the list last year, and you just couldn't follow through. Overcoming diet changes is right now on The Scope.

I'm not sure if it's an American thing or a woman thing, or maybe it's generational, but it seems like a lot of people I know, when they talk about the kind of resolutions they want to be having for the New Year, diet always seem to make that list. Eating better, having a healthier diet, maintaining that diet. But I also feel like, as you get further into the year, it kind of starts to slip and you'll kind of just be like, "Oh, next year," right?

Well, we have registered dietician Kary Woodruff with us right now, and she's going to help you make that goal this year. Overcoming diet challenges, it's a hard thing.

Kary: Yeah, absolutely. We're very much a weight-focused culture, and so with that constant focus on weight there is this continual pressure to be eating healthfully and to be exercising regularly.

Interviewer: I think also, as a society, we have a lot of diet challenges that are just kind of always preventing us from following through with this resolution that we might have for ourselves. I think maybe one of it, for me anyway, is just we're so busy, right? We're always on-the-go and there's always that excuse, "Oh, I don't have the time."

Kary: Yeah. So I think we have this belief that to eat healthfully it takes a lot of time and a lot of energy. So when we're pressed for time and we're on-the-go, we then sort of throw up our hands and say, "Well, I can't do this now, and so I'll do it later." So it always gets pushed off when, in reality, there actually are some easy ways to prepare healthy meals quick and easy in even 10 to 20 minutes. There are some great websites, like eatingwell.com that has 15 to 20-minute meals, and there are even grocery stores and other restaurants that provide to-go meals that are more healthful and have more nutrient-dense foods.

So it's just being aware of where can we go when we are pressed for time, in order to make a quick, healthy meal or to grab something on-the-go, but something that we can grab quickly that is also healthy.

Interviewer: But that's kind of hard, isn't it? Where we live, there are vending machines everywhere.

Kary: Well, absolutely. So I think we are surrounded by high-fat, high-sugar, high-sodium foods everywhere we go. I think it's also helpful to know that in some of those same places there are also some healthier options. So if you take McDonald's, for example.

McDonald's has this stereotype of only serving greasy, high-fat, high-sodium foods, and they absolutely do serve some of those foods. But you can get a grilled chicken sandwich at McDonald's. You can get a chicken salad. You can get a parfait in the morning or some homemade oatmeal. So I think, sometimes, just because we're grabbing something on-the-go doesn't all of a sudden mean that we order something unhealthful. We can go to some of these same restaurants and same places and get healthy options.

Interviewer: I think it comes down to knowing the knowledge, right? Knowing what's healthy, what's not healthy, what should you be putting into your body. But how do you gain that knowledge? How do you know what to prep in the morning and for lunch? Or if you are running out of time to prep for lunch, if you have to buy lunch, how do you know what to buy that's not unhealthy for your body?

Kary: Yeah. I mean, I think one of the simplest tools that we have, which are now provided through the dietary guidelines, is to use what we in the nutrition field call the plate method. So the plate method says that half of our plate should be comprised of fruits and vegetables, a quarter of our plate should be comprised of lean protein sources and a quarter of our plate should be a whole grain or a starch.

So if you're going to grab something on-the-go, and let's say you are at a grocery store and you're in the salad bar area, well, okay, so could you grab a great, big salad or some steamed vegetables or roasted vegetables and have that be about half of what you take with you? Could you find a lean protein, like some grilled chicken or grilled fish? Is there a whole grain option, like a whole wheat bun or some quinoa, or some other whole grain option? So just by thinking of those three things, of a lean protein, a whole grain or starch, and fruits and vegetables, then that helps to direct some of the things that we can order or grab on-the-go.

Interviewer: It all comes back to self-control though, doesn't it? When you're standing in, like you said, that line in McDonald's, and do you want to grab that salad? Or that cheeseburger sounds pretty good.

Kary: Sure. I do think so. What we also know though, is that we only have so much control that we can exhibit throughout the day. So ways that we can lessen the need for self-control and increase the likelihood of being successful with eating healthfully, is by setting ourselves up to be successful through things like meal-planning.

So if you have planned your lunch for the day, then you're not in the McDonald's line having to exhibit self-control because your meal is already ready, it's there and it's ready to go. So I think little things like setting ourselves up to be successful through meal-planning, for example, requires less self-control in the long-run.

Keeping in mind the principles of balance, moderation, and variety, so if you catch yourself in the new year wanting to try some new, crazy diet or some new fad diet, just ask yourself, "Is this balanced, is this varied and is this moderate?" If it's not, it's probably not going to be sustainable. So if we want to set ourselves up to be successful in the long-term, to eat healthfully, then we have to think about, "What's something I can do for a long time?"

Maybe we can follow a 500-calorie diet for a couple weeks, but is that something we can do forever? If we cannot say yes to that, then we probably shouldn't even start it to begin with. So if you are thinking about trying a new diet or a new dietary approach, you have to ask yourself, "Is this something I could do in the long-run?"

updated: January 19, 2022
originally published: January 4, 2017

Interviewer: Reasons people choose to be a vegetarian, we'll talk about that next on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: I'm with Kary Woodruff, a registered dietitian at the University of Health Care. Kary, what are some reasons that people choose to be a vegetarian.

Kary: We see a lot of reasons, so some people would do it for ethical reasons, for human treatment of animals, and they feel that the way that animals, and the food industry the way that the animal products are processed is unethical, and so they'll decide not to consume animal foods for that reason. We see it for environmental reasons. We know that the carbon footprint for producing and transporting animal products is much higher than that of a vegetarian diet, so people will choose that lifestyle for that reason. Some people choose it for health benefits as we talked about the health benefits of a vegetarian diet.
So there's a lot of very different reasons, and just personal taste, and preferences. Some people don't like meat, so they choose not to eat it just for taste reasons, so there are a lot of different reasons that people choose that.

Interviewer: So, what about people . . . what if I don't like meat very much, and so I don't eat it very often maybe once or twice a month or maybe someone doesn't like red meat, so they don't eat red meat very often or at all. Is that considered vegetarian? Is that maybe not quite vegetarian, but still a healthy choice to make?

Kary: Yeah, there's a term that I've heard that's called Flexitarian. And what that means is that someone who consumes mostly plant foods, maybe they consume some animal products in small amounts, and so that could be considered more of a flexitarian approach. And again, someone who as long as there are following a vegetarian diet intentionally, and making sure that they're still getting protein resources, and other nutrient rich foods like fruits, and vegetables, whole grains. They'll still be getting all the health benefits, all the nutrient that they need, so even a small consumption of meat can be very healthy. And to keep in mind lean animal products like white meat chicken, and white meat turkey can be very healthful part of the diet, so it doesn't mean that we need to follow a vegetarian diet to be healthy. We just know that there are lots of health benefits of a vegetarian diet.

Interviewer: So can you be a vegetarian, and still be unhealthy?

Kary: Oh, absolutely. You'll see some people who'll say I'm going to go a vegetarian, and I'm going to cut out all meat, and that's okay. But then they don't replace it with other good sources of protein, right, so they don't necessarily increase their intake of beans, and nuts and seeds, and soy. And instead they eat lots of processed foods, lots of potentially refined carbohydrates like breads, and pastas, and rices, and cereals, and chips, and snack crackers. In moderation those foods are fine, but if that becomes the main substances of your diet then that would not be very healthy.

Interviewer: Right. So would you recommend a vegetarian diet?

Kary: I think if it's something that you want to do for health reasons or for ethical reasons or for environmental reasons, any of the reasons that we've mentioned, sure. It can be a very healthy approach. I just wouldn't want to give the message that because you're not vegetarian means that you're unhealthy. So you can be healthy with consuming some animal products or you can be healthy as a vegetarian. It depends on why you want to do it, and what's going to be the most sustainable approach for you.

Interviewer: Okay, any final thoughts.

Kary: No, I think it's just finding what works for you and for your family if that's relevant and finding ways that you can increase your intake of fruits, and vegetables, and whole grains, lean sources of protein whether that comes from animal proteins or plant proteins both can be very healthy.

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Interviewer: Healthy benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. That's coming up next on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical news and research from University Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: I'm with Carrie Woodruff, a registered dietician at University of Utah Health Care. So, what are some of the benefits of a vegetarian diet?

Kary: Sure, we see that people who follow a vegetarian diet tend to have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, lower risk for diabetes, for renal disease. They tend to have a healthier BMI and lower risk for obesity. And just their overall intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other nutrient dense foods tends to be higher.

Interviewer: So, as many pros as there are, it sounds like, to being a vegetarian, are there any cons?

Kary: No, I don't think so. I think as long as the person is educated. Someone who follows a vegetarian diet could be at greater risk for iron deficiency, for zinc deficiency, B-12, calcium, and some other nutrients. But if they follow a well-balanced diet, and they make sure they get enough protein in their diet, and enough nutrient rich foods, then they're not going to be facing those sorts of deficiencies, and can have all the health benefits that we mentioned.

Interviewer: Do you find that people often consult with their doctor or with the dietician before making the switch to a vegetarian diet?

Kary: No, I definitely think there are some people, but not everyone does. Sometimes people just decide to do it, and they go ahead and start a diet. And then a lot of times, at least what I see as a clinical dietician, is that patients maybe did get some sort of nutrient deficiency. So maybe they're deficient in iron, or deficient in B-12, and their doctor said "Hey, you should go see a registered dietician just to make sure that you are getting all the nutrients that you need to be getting from your foods."

Interviewer: So, for someone who is a vegetarian and who is iron deficient, or not getting enough protein, or something like that, what are some sources of those nutrients that they can eat and get that way?

Kary: Sure, so iron rich foods will be our leafy green vegetables. We'll even get some iron in some nuts. Definitely legumes are going to be a good source of iron. So those will be in soy products, will have some iron. And then we'll see protein coming from soy foods, from nuts and seeds and legumes as well.

Interviewer: How about vegan diet?

Kary: Vegan diet means that they're not consuming any animal products, so it would exclude any meat, any fish, eggs, or dairy foods. And so they can be at greater risk for nutrient deficiencies. Again, someone who follows a vegan diet can be meeting all their nutrients needs. They just need to be smart about it. And a vegan diet should be supplementing with B-12. That's the one nutrient that we can only get from animal sources.

Interviewer: Any final thoughts?

Kary: Well, I think a vegetarian diet can be very healthy, have lots of benefits, it just should be done with education and be done smartly, I suppose. And so if someone is choosing a vegetarian diet, just to make sure that they're educated on what nutrients they are at risk for deficiency. And to make sure they are getting enough plant sources of those nutrients.

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Interviewer: Healthy alternatives to your classic Thanksgiving dinner. We're going to discuss that next on The Scope.

Announcer: Medical and news research from University Utah physicians specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.

Interviewer: I'm with Kary Woodruff. She's a registered dietician at University of Utah health care. Kary, we'll go over the classic Thanksgiving dinner and maybe try and find some healthier alternatives for people who don't want to gain tons of weight this holiday season so let's start with the big one, turkey.

Kary: Turkey can be very healthy. It can be very lean meat, a good source of B12 and iron and other nutrients. I just suggest looking for the white meat turkey and consuming less of the dark meat.

Interviewer: So next big one and my favorite, gravy.

Kary: You know what. Again, everything in balance and moderation so if you're having a little bit of gravy on your turkey and mashed potatoes that's okay, but are you using a cupful of gravy and that would be of concern. So gravy is going to be a little bit higher in saturated fat and so it's not that we shouldn't eat it at all we just should monitor our portion size a bit.

Interviewer: Okay. Next one that a lot of people like, mashed potatoes.

Kary: Sure, you know I've seen some people mash their potatoes with the skin and that would a more healthful way to eat it because you're getting the benefits of the fiber and potassium that we find in the skin. And again it's a portion size piece so some mashed potatoes are okay it's just not consuming too much of them. And then finally just what are you adding to the mashed potatoes, right? So my mom personally adds sour cream, cream cheese and butter to her mashed potatoes...

Interviewer: Oh my.

Kary: ...so I wouldn't highly recommend that but if you're using just a little bit of one of those options and again maybe getting some skin in there and watching your portion size it can be a very healthful part of Thanksgiving dinner.

Interviewer: All right so green beans. This is the healthiest part of Thanksgiving, right? Green beans.

Kary: Oh yes and it can be and it can not be right? So they could be smothered in butter and have bacon and lots of other add-ins or they could be steamed with maybe a little bit of olive oil. Sometimes I'll serve them with just a little bit of toasted walnuts or pecans. Sometimes I've added blueberries to them and that can be a way to get more vegetables. Just avoiding the heavy use of butter and other higher fat add-ons.

Interviewer: Okay so a healthier alternative to stuffing.

Kary: I've seen stuffing made with whole wheat bread and that would be a good start. Avoiding adding lots of meat to stuffing because my thought is if you're already going to be getting some meat with the turkey maybe not adding the sausage or other bacon or other higher fat add-ins to the stuffing.

Interviewer: And then now the sweets. The sweet potato casserole.

Kary: I think those marshmallows can be optional. You know I always make them half the casserole for those who just need to have the marshmallows and then half without. You usually can get away with adding half the butter that some people add and they're still very, very tasty and so again, it's what you're adding to them. Sweet potatoes are a great source of potassium. Great source of Vitamin C. Really great source of nutrients, it's just what are we adding to them and how much are we consuming?

Interviewer: Right. Okay. Holiday staple. Pumpkin pie.

Kary: My advice to the pumpkin pie is how many times do we come to Thanksgiving dinner and we eat dinner and maybe we even eat a little bit of seconds and we are so full but then we see the pumpkin pie and think okay well I'm just going to squeeze that in and I would say you know what? Save it. Save it for later when you're not so full. It's hard to really enjoy something when you're so full and trying to add in one more thing and so maybe you save it for the next day or you save it for a couple hours later. So have some pumpkin pie. It is a special thing to have but just watch how big of a piece are you having and maybe wait until you're not so full.

Interviewer: Great suggestions. Any final thoughts with a healthier Thanksgiving?

Kary: You know, I've seen some statistics where the average calorie intake on Thanksgiving, just for dinner, not for the whole day but just for the mean can be anywhere from 2000 to 3000 calories.

Interviewer: Oh wow.

Kary: And that's a lot. I mean to put that in perspective that's if not equal to probably more than what we need for a whole days worth of calories so some tips that I have are, A, don't save up all day. Some people won't eat all day but then the challenge is by the time they get to dinner they're so hungry they can't control how much they're eating. So even if you just eat a small breakfast and a small lunch that can help to prevent us from over eating.
The second tip is again, just remember you can have it later. You can save some for later. I think we get into this mentality of oh my gosh it's the only time that I do this all year long so I have to get it all in. And keep in mind we can always make mashed potatoes some other day or make a pumpkin pie some other time or just save it for later for the next day.

Interviewer: Leftovers.

Kary: Yes, exactly.

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Interviewer: So, juicing, is it really better than nothing, or should you be actually eating the fruits and vegetables raw? We're talking with Kary Woodruff, registered dietician with the University of Utah and she's going to tell us all about that today on The Scope.

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Interviewer: So Kary, I am a big believer of fruits and veggies in my diet but I am also a really big believer in the fact that my diet needs to taste good and some of the vegetables just don't taste good to me. And so, I choose to just blend it all up and if I don't see it, I can just chug it all down. Am I doing it right? Am I still good?

Kary: Yeah, it is, as you identified, it is probably better to eat the whole fruit and the whole vegetable. That being said, juicing would be a better option than not getting any fruits and vegetables at all.

Interviewer: Okay.

Kary: And I would say not all juices are created equally. So there's some ways of juicing fruits and vegetables in a way that retains the pulp.

Interviewer: Oh, okay.

Kary: Some of the more pricey juicers. They are more expensive, but they do give us more benefits like the Blendtecs or the Vitamix, because they actually retain the whole fruit and vegetable. They don't remove the pulp.

Interviewer: Okay.

Kary: Which is the really nutritious part of the fruit and vegetable.

Interviewer: So it's a . . .

Kary: So if we can retain the whole food, and not remove the pulp, then we'll be retaining more nutrients.

Interviewer: Okay. Is that seeds, everything, that's included as well, right? So like an apple?

Kary: Correct.

Interviewer: Okay. When I juice my orange, obviously the juice of it comes out, but the pulp of it still stays there because I'm juicing it by hand. From what you've just said, that's not really healthy then, is it? Or it's not as healthy.

Kary: It's not as healthy, yeah, because you're losing some of the fiber. And so when we eat foods with fiber, like the whole orange, it'll actually last longer versus something that has the fiber removed we'll feel energy pretty quickly. But then we actually feel hungry again pretty soon thereafter.

Interviewer: All the juice cleanses then out there, do you recommend those?

Kary: I do. Yeah, again, I would try and juice it in a way that's retaining the whole fruit and vegetables.

Interviewer: Okay.

Kary: And so they're juicing in a way that's retaining the whole form of the vegetable and fruit then that would be a better option.

Interviewer: Gotcha. Okay. But most of them, from what I've seen, are just the juice and that's, so stay away from that if you can.

Kary: Yeah, I would rather see people eat fruits and vegetables.

Interviewer: Okay. And then are there any kinds of fruits and veggies that are just, not only taste good together, but can really benefit your health when you put them all into a blender and you mix them all up?

Kary: Yeah, I mean I think really the more the better. There are some nutrients that do tend to help the absorption of other nutrients. But really when we see when we get a good combination of fruits and vegetables we tend to see good absorption, and good nutrient utilization. So I wouldn't get too caught up in trying to focus on two particular fruits and vegetables, and just to get a variety.

Interviewer: Okay. And then I also, there's this new trend where, when you're juicing something, when you're making a smoothie or a fruit juice or a veggie juice, they're putting in like proteins and whey and all these other products. Is that okay?

Kary: Well it depends on what the purpose of the juice is. So if it's a meal, if it's going to be a meal replacement, then there should be some protein with it.

Interviewer: Gotcha. That's okay then, to do juice as a meal.

Kary: Yeah, I mean I'd rather, again I'd rather see someone eat the fruits and vegetables and get a food source of protein, but I do understand that sometime there's a convenience factor to being able to make it and have it on the run. And so there's that, again I think when we can juice it with something that will retain the whole fruit, the whole vegetable, and then getting some protein with it. So whether someone uses a protein powder, or they could actually use a food source of protein like some Greek yoghurt, or some milk, or soymilk, could be good ways of integrating in some protein.

Interviewer: Gotcha. So what I'm hearing is its fine. It's fine to juice your fruits and veggies. It's okay.

Kary: It is. You have to make sure you're also eating them as well.

Interviewer: Okay. Is there a reason why juicing would not be good for you?

Kary: Well, it would be like if you are going to Jamba Juice and getting these extra-large Jamba Juices that have added juices for sweetness. And that's going to be simply added sugar. That's really what that translates to. And then what we see that happens with that is those can be pretty high in calories, high in the sugars, and those forms won't be healthy.

Interviewer: Gotcha. All right. So juice all you want, just make sure that the raw, the source material of the juice is still there and don't add anything bad that can cause harm to your health in the juice.

Kary: Yeah, like added sugar.

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